Irregular Engine
Goal:
Create a mechanism that translate a rotational motion to linear motion.
Video (YouTube)
Process:
Primarily using 1/8” thick plywood my goal was to recreate several of the principals of a combustion engine in a visual and artistic way.
The hand crank rotates a square drive shaft that spins differently shaped cams that move the pistons at different cycles and strokes.
Since this is human powered, I made “flat” bearings to support the driveshaft giving a near frictionless feel to the hand crank.
Lessons Learned:
Much of this project involved laser-cutting 1/8” plywood and learning how to prep cut files and adjust the laser-cutter settings. It was also of value to learn that give the low cost of the material and high speed performance of the machine meant that cutting extra spare parts or a few variations of the same part often saved time in the long run.